Byron gets a start on wetlands study

A House of Delegates subcommittee that usually kills lots of bills approved one Thursday to let the state Department of Environmental Quality study ways it could issue all the permits for construction projects affecting wetlands.

The study’s approval headed off what appeared to be a pair of potential confrontations, involving supporters of the Chesapeake Bay and of individual rights.

If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were to agree with the study’s purpose, builders could get a construction permit from one agency instead of dealing with both state regulators and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, said the study’s approval Thursday by a House of Delegates Rules subcommittee meant she could wait a year before pushing for legislation to have the state DEQ seek permission from the federal EPA to administer wetlands permits. The Rules subcommittee approved Byron's HJR243.

Just two states, New Jersey and Michigan, oversee the permits themselves.

Byron said the dual-agency process is starting to delay economic reconstruction in Southside Virginia, making it harder for manufacturers to use new buildings.

Byron had legislation on file Thursday, as HB 1281, would set up a way for Virginia to become the sole issuer of wetlands permits. But, after winning approval for the study, she recommended HB 1281 be halted for this year.

“I will be back next year,” after DEQ, builders and property owners collaborate in the study and draft a new bill, Byron said.

Two individual-rights advocates said they liked the idea of being at the table for the study.

Charles Battig, who described himself as an Albemarle County landowner, said the language in HB 1281 was vague and could give the state broad powers.

Dave Mason of Augusta County, who said he is vice chairman of the Constitution Party of Virginia, said the bill seemed to “control every bit of water in the whole state. That is a huge grab of power.”

Ann Jennings, of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said a study was completed in 2006, looking into Virginia assuming control of the wetlands program.

“Concerns were raised at that time that it would require additional staff at DEQ, perhaps 35 additional people and perhaps $2 million” added to the DEQ budget, Jennings said.

Byron, in a closing statement to the subcommittee, said, “People who are petrified by what they are reading” were invited to “become part of the study.”

Byron said the Army Corps of Engineers, which issues wetlands permits for the EPA, “already does, or has the authority to do” the things outlined in the bill halted Thursday.

“If you weren’t aware of it, maybe you should be even more frightened,” she said.

Byron said her bill was designed to have the state DEQ, and not the corps, interpret the EPA regulations.